[gradsusr] Displaying data from NetCDF; outputting text files; using comparitive statistics

Muhammad Rahiz muhammad.rahiz at ouce.ox.ac.uk
Wed Dec 15 10:16:04 EST 2010



-- 
Muhammad Rahiz
Researcher & DPhil Candidate (Climate Systems & Policy)
School of Geography & the Environment
University of Oxford

On Wed, 15 Dec 2010, James Ciarlo` wrote:

> Dear Muhammad,
> A) I have sent you the nc file for file3.jpg, but I cannot send you the nc file for file1.jpg
> and file2.jpg as it is 35 GB large. Perhaps we can figure it out through this one?

The attached ESRL_SLP.nc file has undergone some processing. You can look 
at the history of commands on the file by

  $ ncdump -h ESRL_SLP.nc

I went the source of the data at 
www.esrl.noaa.gov/psd/data/gridded/data.20thC_ReanV2.monolevel.mm.html and 
downloaded the file prmsl.mon.mean.nc (it is the same file you have 
judging from the file history). I then made a test plot in GrADs (see 
prmsl.png). Plots fine.

As I said, some processing was done on the file you have. I don't know 
exactly what language (I suspect NCL) and what it's trying to do. Perhaps 
you can tell what is it that you're trying to do with the file, I could 
possibly help.

> 
> B) I have set up the script fprintf.gs and have managed to get it operational. It works well
> and I thank you for it. I haven't been able to produce the text for time and elevation though.
> I tried the same procedure as you mentioned for lon.txt and lat.txt for time, but it didn't
> work? does it require another script or maybe a different way to define time?

I'm not sure what you mean by wanting to get the ascii grid for time. 
Each ascii that you generate corresponds to a particular time. Hence if 
you want to get ascii grids for all time steps, just do something like

'sdfopen input.nc'
'set t 1'
'd prmsl'
'fprintf prmsl prmsl.t1.txt'

'set t 2'
'd prmsl'
'fprintf prmsl prmsl.t2.txt'

Of course, you can do this in a loop for all time steps.

I'm not sure if elevation (topography) is a variable of climate data 
(I've not come across any). Do you mean pressure levels like 500mb, 100mb 
etc? If yes, then you can do;

'set lev 500'
'set t 1'
'd prmsl'
'fprintf prmsl prmsl.time1.lev500.txt'

This gives you the data for 500mb pressure level at time, t=1.


> Regards,
> 
> James
> 
> On 15 December 2010 10:46, Muhammad Rahiz <muhammad.rahiz at ouce.ox.ac.uk> wrote:
>       Hi James,
>
>       I suspect a corrupted data file. Could you attach the original datafile, if it's
>       not too big? And attach the commands that you use to plot as well.
>
>       --
>       Muhammad Rahiz
>       Researcher & DPhil Candidate (Climate Systems & Policy)
>       School of Geography & the Environment
>       University of Oxford
> 
> On Wed, 15 Dec 2010, James Ciarlo` wrote:
> 
> Dear Muhammad,
> I am sorry it took me so long to answer. Thank you for your
> answer on point 2. 
> 
> Regarding point 1, opening .nc files. I have attached some
> files. 
> The images from file1.jpg and file2.jpg are grads images
> (printim) from nc files produced with RegCM4, one is gxout
> contour and the other is gxout shaded.
> The image from file3.jpg is a grads image (printim) gxout shaded
> for an nc file from the ESRL database. 
> The last image was produced with the PANOPLY data viewer from
> the same file that produced file3.jpg
> 
> As you can see the data is not being plotted with grads as with
> normal .ctl files (which are working properly).
> I cannot seem to understand why it is not reading it properly.
> Maybe there are some definitions that I have to set? How should
> I check if all the settings are correct?
> 
> Regarding point 3, I think I can do them as a normal
> mathematical expression, but I'll be trying that later on. 
> 
> Regards,
> 
> James
> 
> On 11 December 2010 12:24, James Ciarlo`
> <james.ciarlo at physics.org> wrote:
>      Dear Muhammad,
> I just had a look at it this morning. Unfortunately I
> haven't yet had the time to put it to use. Thank you very
> much for your help. I will get back to you about it for
> sure. Thanks again
> 
> Regards,
> 
> James
> 
> 
> On 11 December 2010 09:59, Muhammad Rahiz
> <muhammad.rahiz at ouce.ox.ac.uk> wrote:
>      Hi James,
>      I was wondering if you got my reply to the
>      query you posted because I'm not sure if it
>      gets delivered successfully.
> 
>      Anyway, if you did not, these are what I
>      suggested
> 
>      1. display error
>      - Try set gxout to something other than the
>      default e.g. set gxout grfill
>      - set clevs
>      - check units
> 
>      2. print to ascii
>      what you need is the fprintf.gs script
>      available athttp://cookbooks.opengrads.org/index.php?title=Recipe-002:_Savi
> 
>      ng_GrADS_variable_data_to_a_text_file
> 
>      Copy the code and name the file as fprintf.gs.
>      Then do the following,
> 
>      sdfopen input.nc
>      d var                   # where var = variable
>      fprintf var dat.txt      # prints data of var
>      fprintf lon lon.txt     # prints corresponding
>      lon
>      fprintf lat lat.txt     # prints corresponding
>      lat
> 
>      3. statistical analysis
>      I know how to do so in R. If you're interested
>      in using R for this purpose, I can help.
> 
>      HTH,
> 
>      --
>      Muhammad Rahiz
>      Researcher & DPhil Candidate (Climate Systems
>      & Policy)
>      School of Geography & the Environment
>      University of Oxford
> 
>      On Fri, 10 Dec 2010, James Ciarlo` wrote:
> 
>      Dear all,
>      I am using GrADS 2.0.a9 on LINUX. I am
>      trying to compare measured and modelled
>      data by using GrADS. However since I am
>      new with the program, there are
>      some issues that I cannot seem to figure
>      out, or find a solution to understand.
>      I am experiencing:
> 
>      1) Difficulty with displaying data from
>      NetCDF files
>      I have opened the file with the command
>      'sdfopen'
>      When I tried 'd prmsl' I got the
>      following error:
>      Operation error:  Invalid dimension
>      environment
>        Min longitude > max longitude: 320 144
>      So I used ' set lon -40 145' and tried
>      the display command again
>      I got the following line and the image
>      attached (ncimage.jpg):
>      Contouring: 99000 to 102300 interval 300
>      And I am getting similar results with
>      other nc files
> 
>      2) Difficulty with finding a command to
>      output text files, or dat, or anything
>      similar.
>      I have used set lat, set lon, and set
>      lev to obtain one value, and set t to
>      get a long time interval, I have used d
>      psa to display the time series, I
>      can use printim file.jpg to get an
>      image, but I cannot find a command to
>      produce a file.txt so that I can make
>      use of the actual numbers for
>      statistical purposes.
> 
>      3) Difficulty with finding a command to
>      work out comparative statistics,
>      particularly correlation and
>      significance.
> 
>      Regards,
> 
>      James Ciarlo`
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
>
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